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Jack Lander Replies:

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Inventor Donna Sonnet asked:

"I am extremely new to all of this.  I have an idea which I believe can be created/manufactured fairly easily.  I wonder what to do now." 

Andrew Abrams wrote: Re. advice to new inventor, Donna Sonnet:

"DO NOT start reading books and websites about inventions and patents ...or biographies of famous inventors."
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Wow!  I seldom bristle when I read Abrams advice here.  (Nor do I enter
the dialogs re. his business methods.)  But the advice above is just
plain nonsense.

A new inventor needs help from many areas.  Reading is one of the most
important, if not THE most important.  How can any of us get knowledge -
- especially knowledge that we can review at will - - without having
written material?

The written word is most often the calm, well-considered voice of reason
and experience.  Errors of expression and omission have been corrected,
and emotional content is mainly absent, unlike much of the discussion on
InventNet of late.

Ok on the biographies comment.  Most biographies are idealized or at
least slanted toward the writer's mindset.  Biographies of inventors are
nearly always of famous people like Edison.  I agree that these are of
little value to the beginner except perhaps for the message that
persistence is an essential quality of all inventors.


> DO show the concept to a patent attorney (or more than one) ...most will give you a free review about patentablity.
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Nothing wrong with this except the emphasis.  The first visit to a
patent attorney or patent agent (let's not forget the agents!) should
ONLY concern patentablity, and this doesn't mean an off-the-wall guess
by the agent/atty.  It means ordering a search and patentablity opinion
($500 to $1000 in most cases).

A search without an opinion is not worth much to the beginner.  And an
opinion that is positive doesn't mean that the next step should be to
file a patent, although this could be implicit if the new inventor does
not have a broad understanding of the options.

Read, Donna, read.  Don't let anyone talk you out of studying this
business from several angles, including faithfully reading the advice on
InventNet.

Jack Lander, Inventor's Book Store

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